1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to automated systems and methods for relating to images of the same object together without using image acquisition metadata, and more particularly, to such systems and methods matching points between images to determine the transform between images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generation of three dimensional (3D) models of structures, such as a roof of a building, from orthogonal and oblique perspective imagery (such as aerial imagery) has many applications. One such application is for generating measurements to providing roof repair and estimation reports. However, the sources of the aerial images may be varied and the images are often not accompanied with accurate data, or any data at all, associated with how the image is acquired, such as data indicating the position and orientation of the camera relative to the object in the photograph or the ground, look angle of the camera, longitude and latitude of various points in the photograph, distance of objects in the photograph from the camera, and aircraft telemetry data. Such data associated with how the image is acquired is referred to herein as “image acquisition metadata”. Without this image acquisition metadata, it is more difficult to efficiently define the roof form/structure to generate a three-dimensional model of the roof.
Thus, efficient systems and methods for relating images to each other by determining transforms without using image acquisition metadata, particularly with orthogonal and oblique perspective imagery, is desired.